The most recent data available from the National Center for Health Statistics, shows that in Florida, one in four women (25%) and one in eight (12%) men have had a mental health problem.1 Rates of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder (a serious and complex illness) and other serious psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia are also similar to national figures.2 Among the more troubling findings are that one in eight boys is depressed6—approximately four times the rate of female depression. The highest rates of depression can be found among adolescents, the elderly, and men over age 65.6 A more recent national study showed that the lifetime prevalence of bipolar disorder was more than twice as high in women as in men,7 and that females with bipolar disorders are four times more likely to die from suicide than males with this illness.7 Given this reality, efforts to improve the health of females are imperative.
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